New home buyers with a sizeable deposit or those with other banking business were best placed to win a discount, he said.

An ANZ spokesperson said: “We are happy to consider discretionary pricing on rates on a case-by-case basis.”

Commonwealth Bank said staff typically didn’t give extra discounts because its Wealth package was already competitive, while Westpac said the 0.7 per cent discount on its Premier package was the most common.

NAB said it had offered the lowest standard variable interest rate of the big banks for 16 months.

“We note that in many cases our competitors are struggling to meet our standard offering, even if they are willing to offer discounts.”